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Auslan Endorsement System

Criteria for Endorsement

To be endorsed by Deaf Australia, Auslan materials must meet the criteria set out below.

There are two categories of endorsement.

Category 1 - Materials that are considered by our testers to use correct Auslan signs and correct Auslan grammar.

Category 2 - Materials that are considered by our testers to use correct Auslan signs. The grammar is not considered to be Auslan.

Some materials (e.g. children's story books) use Auslan signs in English word order - i.e. the grammar is English. These materials are not fully authentically Auslan, but they can be useful for children learning English. It is important that these materials use correct Auslan signs. To be endorsed by Deaf Australia as using Auslan signs but having non-Auslan grammar these materials must meet the criteria set out in Category 2 below.

Category 1 - Auslan signs and grammar

Auslan is a visual language that moves in space, and as such it cannot be easily written down. (There is a writing system that linguists use, but most people do not know or understand it.) The most effective media for Auslan is film/CD/DVD - i.e. media that allow the movements and expressions of Auslan to be shown. Materials presented in these media have a better chance of being endorsed.

1. Many materials, e.g. books and websites, try to depict Auslan signs with the use of static drawings and photographs. Since these materials cannot adequately show the movement and non-manual features (e.g. expressions) of the signs, they need to include an explanation of how the signs move and the non-manual features. This explanation should either accompany each sign (e.g. as in a dictionary), or be included as a glossary. Auslan material taken from other sources should have appropriate copyright approval.
2. Materials that use static representations of Auslan signs should include advice to the user that these materials should only be used in conjunction with a face to face Auslan class, or with people who already know the signs, they are not suitable by themselves as a method for learning Auslan because the movement and non-manual features of the signs cannot be clearly shown in this format.
3. Signs must be acceptable to our testers for all of the 5 elements:
   
   
   1. Handshape
   2. Orientation
   3. Location
   4. Movement
   5. Non- manual features (e.g., expression)
      
      (Materials published before March 2008 and being tested retrospectively, will be accepted if they are considered accurate for all of the first 4 elements, new materials published from March 2008 must have all 5 elements that are acceptable to our testers.)
4. Signs must be considered to be understood everywhere in Australia. If they are not widely used nationally then the material needs to include a statement advising that it contains regional signs that are not used nation-wide.
5. For persons' / characters' names, unless the person/character has a pre-existing sign name, names should be fingerspelt in full, in line with Deaf customs.
6. Signs must be acceptable to our testers as being appropriate to the context.
7. Signers' delivery of signs should be age appropriate to the audience.
8. Photographs and illustrations of signers should be appropriate to the audience and the story - e.g. illustrations of child signers in children's books.

Category 2: Auslan signs, non-Auslan grammar

Materials that use representations of Auslan signs to accompany the English text, as in a children's story book with a sign attached to each word or group of words, are not fully Auslan materials because they depict Auslan signs in English word order. The grammatical structure of sentences is different in Auslan.

These materials will be endorsed as category 2 Auslan materials if they meet the criteria for category 1, but the grammar is English.

These materials should include a statement advising the user that although the signs themselves are Auslan signs they are used in English word order.

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